Drawing Cards in the Middle Ages to Rise in Ranks

Right now, the New Habsburg looks just like a large construction site.

Inside the walls, wooden scaffolds, iron buckets filled with lime, and simply cut strips of bricks are all scattered around the half-built Inner Castle.

The stable, animal pens, bakery, kitchen, tool shop, and those numerous simple houses for the city-building craftsmen rely on New Habsburg's outer walls for construction.

The four hundred farmer soldiers from Hebron and a hundred and fifty elite standing army are here, gathered around bonfires, eating, resting, making it quite crowded.

In Losa's future plan, New Habsburg is meant to be a large city, but for now, it barely maintains the function of a "military post."

By the latter half of the night.

The Winged Cavalry, veteran soldiers, and Varangian Guards.

They all swiftly got up from their warm beds, helping their comrades wear their armor, fasten their cloaks, bracers, greaves, and other equipment.

The cries of the pack animals woke the farmer soldiers who were sleeping drowsily.

But they were immediately urged by their respective Imperial Knights to continue closing their eyes and sleeping.

They have limited energy, and the exhaustion from daytime marching must be replenished through sleep at night. They simply can't do midnight attacks like Hebron's elite standing army.

Tonight, the temperature is very low, and you can clearly see the white mist coming from the mouths and noses of both people and animals.

Losa is wrapped in a black cloak printed with a dragon head, covering his ears with the furry collar.

At this moment, he is sitting on a thick root of the Tree of Life protruding from the ground, reaching out to touch it.

Under the rough texture, there is a feeling akin to a long-lost familiarity.

This is the Tree of Life conveying its emotions to Losa.

Due to the nourishment of the Earth Dragon's flesh, its growth speed is very fast, and probably in just another month, it will enter its youth stage.

By then, it can serve as a camp for training Woodland Archers.

In Losa's army, the lack of long-range power has always been a problem.

Among the Crusaders in Jerusalem, crossbowmen, that is, crossbowmen, always occupy a larger proportion of ranged force.

In contrast, highly skilled archers are much rarer.

He experienced this in the mock battles against Charles VII.

The crossbowmen hired from Genoa were simply no match for the English Longbowmen, both in terms of range and speed, they were harshly suppressed.

As long as the Woodland Archers trained by the Tree of Life achieve the level of the English Longbowmen, they will be an extremely crucial part of his army.

"Sir, everything is ready, we should depart."

Jeanne suddenly spoke.

Losa glanced at the sky, nodded, and mounted his steed: "Model, you stay here, at dawn, immediately organize the troops and head to Alandler."

Model questioned: "What about those siege weapons and baggage?"

"Of course, we'll leave them behind, the pack animals are all with us, where's the strength left to carry them? You just depart on time and take the troops to clean up the aftermath in the city."

A unique move wins everywhere.

No matter how many times the midnight raid is used, it's always the best option to win stronger with weaker forces.

This time, he almost brought all the pack animals, including the single-humped camels left by the robbers they captured.

It's all to temporarily convert veteran soldiers into mounted infantry, increasing their mobility.

...

Monotonous travel time is not worth mentioning.

Along the way, there wasn't any encounter with scouts or similar enemies.

The empty desert, apart from the scorpions crawling in and out of the skulls buried by sandstorms, seemed devoid of life.

About two hours have passed, maybe longer because they need to accommodate the slower veteran soldiers.

Eventually, a silhouette of a fortress-like structure appeared before them.

Beside the road, fields and orchards started to emerge.

In the yards, dogs issued sharp barks, drawing pairs of eyes to peek out through the gaps in the windows.

The scout returned and reported: "Sir, there's a monastery built outside the city ahead, bypass it, and we're only ten miles away from Alandler."

"Monastery..."

Losa squinted slightly, vaguely seeing on the monastery's top, there are sculptures of Drip Mouth Beast, that is, Stone Gargoyles, along with those oddly placed Fire Worship Altars.

Just like when Christians captured Jerusalem, they didn't tear down the Fire Worship towers, but instead evolved them into Christian bell towers.

The Saracens similarly didn't demolish this sturdy monastery, but erected a Holy Fire Altar on top.

"No need to bother with it, as long as Alandler is broken, this monastery will fall sooner or later."

Losa continued to order the march.

…

Alandler wasn't a strong large city, its status, like Montreal to Kaler Castle, belonged to the transit hub type city, so the affiliated villages and residents were few.

More like a town dependent on Eira Port.

The cavalry slowly approached the vicinity of the city gates.

Furin quietly transformed into a bat and flew over the city walls.

A moment later, accompanied by a series of creaking sounds.

The heavy iron-covered city gates slowly rose, driven by soldiers whose minds had been bewildered, as they strained to turn the capstan.

Immediately, Hans and Jeanne each led a troop, engaging into Alandler City's Inner Castle.

The armored cavalry lance in Hans's hand and Jeanne's talent both dramatically increase the Knight's combat power, critically important in city assaults and street battles.

At this time.

The sleepy defending soldiers detected something wrong over here, began shouting, rallying their companions to surround the city gate.

Among them, quite a few soldiers were putting on armor.

But before they even finished their preparation, Hans rushed ahead, bringing over a dozen of Varangian Guards wielding Two-Handed Axes, cutting down the opposing enemies as if harvesting wheat.

Having been specially trained beforehand, they shouted using the Heretics' language: "Lay down your weapons, stop resisting, or be slain mercilessly."

Alandler's defending soldiers, totaling around five hundred, those distributed on this side of the city walls numbered just over a hundred.

Facing such fierce onslaught, they immediately began retreating.

Fire Worship's doctrine forbids the ringing of bells, and at the moment, the news of the enemy's surprise attack couldn't spread across the city.

Losa remained in the rear, with no intention to engage in the slaughter. With Jeanne and Hans respectively leading the charge, he didn't need to intervene in battlefield command.

Moments later.

A Fire Worship monk, under the watchful sight of two Winged Cavalry, was brought before Losa.

He revealed the typical hairstyle with the top middle part bald and shouted in Germanic Language: "Heavenly Father above, finally someone has come to rescue us!"

"You must be Count Losa, right?"

Losa looked at him without much confirmation.

"Who are you?"

"Sir, I am the Bishop of Alandler, Meiwal, the reason I wear such attire is merely feigned conversion, to deceive those heretic Demons."

The Fire Worship monk showed a sorrowful look, continuously drawing a cross on his chest: "For the sake of preserving Alandale Monastery, please don't let this matter spread."

Losa politely nodded: "Certainly, there's no problem, respected Bishop Meiwal, when Alandler was conquered, you went incognito, hid in the city, and when we counter-attacked Alandler, you bravely came forward to assist, until unfortunately perished under the enemy's cruel assault—how does such an outcome sound?"

This...This isn't right?

Meiwal widened his eyes.

Almost instinctively swallowing, he spoke rapidly: "Count sir, I understand this city better than you, living makes you grasp Alandler Bishopric more advantageous."

"Perhaps you're right, but I don't need it."

Losa waved his hand.

The next moment, the Winged Cavalry standing behind Meiwal raised his weapon, slicing across his throat.